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Kentucky Derby | Winner to prepare at Churchill

Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome came out of his 1 3/4-length victory Saturday over Commanding Curve in good order and will stay at Churchill Downs until shipping to Baltimore for Pimlico’s May 17 Preakness Stakes.

Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome came out of his 1¾-length victory Saturday over Commanding Curve in good order and will stay at Churchill Downs until shipping to Baltimore for Pimlico’s May 17 Preakness Stakes.

“Pretty cool, I got to tell you,” Art Sherman, at 77 now the oldest trainer to win the Derby, said Sunday at daybreak. “They just had him on Fox News. Great experience. I had to get up and kind of pinch myself this morning, feeling, ‘Wow, we just won the Kentucky Derby,’ I told my wife.”

Now the question is whether California Chrome could be the first horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and the June 7 Belmont Stakes in New York since Affirmed pulled off the Triple Crown in 1978.

“I talked it over with Victor (jockey Victor Espinoza) even last night,” Sherman said. “I said, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘He just got a little tired. A mile and a quarter, coming off of shipping and everything, but he fine.’ He says he kind of eased him up the last 70 yards. He said he could have gone on and opened up, but he did the right thing. Because if we’re going to the Preakness two weeks later, I’m just going to freshen him up and hope everything is all right with him leg-wise and everything. He looked fine this morning.

“I’m going to have my vet check him out for me, and we’re on to Pimlico and see how that is.”

Sherman said California Chrome “acted like he didn’t even run” the evening before. “He’s kind of pushing you around, which is a good sign,” he said. “He didn’t eat every oat, but he just left a handful. So his appetite is good.”

Sherman said he will keep California Chrome in Tom Proctor’s barn at Churchill Downs, to let horse racing’s newest hero unwind. He wants to fly the Derby winner to Baltimore, but on an earlier flight than the traditional one that goes from Louisville to Baltimore the Wednesday before the Preakness.

“We can light train him over here for a couple of days, kind of just jog him,” Sherman said.

California Chrome has won five races since Espinoza became his rider.

“I think just think he’s developing,” Sherman said. “You get horses who all of a sudden peak at a certain time. He’s peaking now. I was over there, and he bit me. He was like, ‘Hey, I just won the Derby.’ ‘You better behave yourself,’ I told him. He’s getting a little high and cocky. But he’s such a cool horse, you’ve got to love him. He’s got such personality. Such a pleasure to be around.”

Sherman said the two weeks between the Derby and Preakness are a concern.

“I’ve never run a horse back in two weeks, even when I’m running cheap claiming horses,” he said. “I just wish it was a little more time. I always thought, ‘My god, how do these guys do it in the Triple Crown?’ And they’re sitting in the wings with fresh horses waiting for me. It’s doing to be a different group of horses. I just have to see how my horse recoups after this race. And if he says, ‘Hey, let’s go for it,’ I’m there.

“… I just think he’s going to be a hickory horse, coming into this race, myself.”